Documentary on America’s Cup Is an Ellison Family Affair

If you are Larry Ellison, you can buy the best talent, the best technology and the best boat to win the America’s Cup. Your son also might make a movie about you.

The results were on display Wednesday night at a gala premiere in San Francisco of “The Wind Gods,” a documentary about the victory by Ellison’s BMWOracle team of the prestigious race in 2010. The event was also an unveiling of sorts for facilities built to host this year’s staging of the race series, which will extend through the summer on San Francisco Bay and culminate with finals in September.

Besides key members of Ellison’s crew and yachting dignitaries, leaders of the team that made the film and reporters, there was a cameo appearance by the America’s Cup itself, an impressive silver creation frequently described as the oldest active trophy in international sports.

But even that icon can be improved, the audience was shown; its longtime wooden base was replaced by the American victors with one made of carbon fiber, a familiar material in the futuristic boats that lead the event these days.

Relentless improvement is one of the over-arching themes in the documentary, which features vivid footage from the duel off Valencia, Spain between Ellison’s crew and the Swiss team Alinghi. In his ten-year quest for the prize, the Oracle CEO gradually recruited the best skipper and helmsman and developed a clearly superior boat, one whose gigantic wing-like sail is a star of the documentary.

The movie was produced by Skydance Productions, whose CEO is David Ellison, Larry’s son. He is listed as executive producer, while film producer Wendy Yamano was also on hand Wednesday night to describe the creative effort. It is scheduled to air soon on PBS.

Described as a somewhat hastily conceived project, the film nevertheless is quite polished, with a sonorous voice-over narration by Jeremy Irons to help inject about as much drama as possible into the 2010 race recap. Much is made about Ellison’s wrong-side-of-the-tracks upbringing in Chicago, styling him as the self-made risk-taker in comparison to the born-wealthy Alinghi leader Ernesto Bertarelli.

The trouble is, Ellison has been so rich and powerful for so long now that it is pretty hard to make him seen in any sense like an underdog–particularly because the boat raced in 2010 was so clearly superior to Alinghi’s that the outcome never seemed in much doubt. Just as in the software business: Larry wins, as usual.

“Someone once asked me if it’s worth $100 million to win the America’s cup,” Ellison says in the film. “It’s not worth $100 million to lose the America’s Cup.”

Ellison appeared onstage after the film showing at Wednesday with James Spithill, who had his hands on the boat’s controls in 2010 and will serve as skipper and helmsman in Oracle Team USA’s defense of the trophy in San Francisco. The pair were joined by son David, who is not the only Ellison making a name in film; daughter Megan Ellison has become well-known for producing “Zero Dark Thirty.”

“They are both extremely hard working and focused people,” Ellison said. “I’m a proud father.”

Besides the film, the event Wednesday was a coming out party for a book about the America’s Cup victory, “The Billionaire and the Mechanic.” The latter occupation is a reference to blue-collar commodore Norbert Bajurin of the Golden Gate Yacht Club in San Francisco, who wound up sponsoring Ellison’s cup challenge after negotiations with the tony St. Francis Yacht Club fell apart.

The book was written by Julian Guthrie, a longtime reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle, who also spoke at the event.

As for chronicling the races this summer, there is little surprise as to which film company will be controlling the cameras–David Ellison’s Skydance Productions.